The newly Trump-endorsed Ohio GOP Senate candidate J.D. Vance allegedly feared that the former president could be “America’s Hitler,” Vance’s former college roommate and Georgia Senate candidate Josh McLaurin (D) claims in a tweet posted Monday of a text exchange they allegedly had in 2016.
McLaurin, who currently serves as a Georgia state representative, shared a screenshot of a text that he claims shows Vance’s “unfiltered explanation from 2016” on Republican politics.
The text Vance allegedly sent to McLaurin calls Trump “the fruit of the party’s collective neglect,” referring to the GOP. Vance allegedly wrote that he goes “back and forth thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon” or “that he’s America’s Hitler.”
Vance’s past life as an anti-Trumper is no secret. Prior to Trump announcing his official endorsement of Vance, the “Hillbilly Elegy” author and former Trump critic spent the past several months repenting for his previous swipes at the former president.
Vance’s past criticisms of the former president did not go unnoticed either when Trump announced his endorsement of Vance in a statement.
“Like some others, J.D. Vance may have said some not so great things about me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have seen that in spades,” Trump said, before quipping that Vance is “our best chance for victory” in the Ohio Senate GOP primary.
“This is not an easy endorsement for me to make because I like and respect some of the other candidates in the race—they’ve said great things about ‘Trump’ and, like me, they love Ohio and love our Country,” Trump continued, before calling Vance’s rivals as pretenders and wannabes.”
Trump’s endorsement of Vance reportedly went against the wishes of the former president’s advisers, who work for other candidates in the Ohio Senate race.
The former president’s advisers unsuccessfully attempted to dissuade him from endorsing Vance by pointing to Vance’s negative comments of Trump in the past, according to the Washington Post.
Trump also wasn’t swayed by a letter that more than two dozen GOP leaders in Ohio signed last week opposing an endorsement of Vance from Trump — which also cited Vance’s past criticisms of Trump.
Trump’s endorsement of Vance came less than a week after the former president endorsed celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in the hotly contested Pennsylvania Senate GOP primary, which drew backlash among a number of Trumpworld figures, who liken Oz to vehement Trump critic Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT).
